Enchanted Discovery

I owe a huge thank you to my beta, Southern_Witch_69, her for all her help and support. Thanks to her infinite patience with me, I actually have something readable for you.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~o 4 o~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Spell of the Tower Room

~Spring 1997~

Hermione staggered from the room, her head spinning with the memory of his kiss, completely bewildered by the mind-blowing sensations Severus had given her. She stopped and leaned against the wall to try and catch her breath. Oh Merlin's balls! The things he did, the things I did! I didn't know I could feel like that – or feel those things! Even when I'd kissed Viktor, it wasn't like this. He didn't make me feel like Severus can. He didn't even kiss me like Severus does – let alone any of the other things I've done with Severus! She wanted to close her eyes and savor the memory, remember everything.

"You were in the kissing tower," a soft female voice said beside her as the Grey Lady floated out of the wall, startling Hermione. "The Bloody Baron created those spells on the room to try and trap me," the Grey Lady told her. "The room is cursed. Don't go back."

Cursed! The room is cursed? There isn't any mention of a cursed room in Hogwarts: A History! "Why?" Hermione asked. Of course they didn't mention about house-elves in the book either, about the Room of Requirement, or the secret passages to the Shrieking Shack or to Honeydukes. But a cursed tower – in the castle?

"Each time you enter the room, the door requires more from you, from both of you, in order for you to leave the tower room. The curses will affect you – make you do things. It's not safe to go up there. You have been warned," she said, floating in the air in front of her. "How far are you willing to go with Professor Snape?"

"You mean – no, I mean, I don't," she tried denying. How could she know? Did she see us?

"Then why do you return?" she asked as she floated away.

"Wait, tell me," Hermione called out as she followed the ghost, intrigued and alarmed. "What do you mean the room is cursed?"

The Grey Lady paused and looked at Hermione in a rather haughty manner. "There are spells on the room, on the door, spells that ensnare and entrap the unwary," she said. "The room is a trap; it will lure you in and entrap you. If you go to the room, you will fall victim to the enchantments and curses."

"But there can't be!" Hermione said, alarmed. "Professor Snape goes to the tower." Severus goes up there every day. He said so.

"And you go there to see him, do you? To be with him?" the ghost asked, and Hermione shook her head, bewildered, as the ghost looked down at her with a smug grin. "Then why do you go back to the tower, huh?" The Grey Lady began to float away, gliding backwards down the corridor.

Hermione hurried to catch up with her again. "I – um, I like the view," she said before the Grey Lady could vanish into the wall.

"Ah, uh, sure... The view is nice, but it's the same from the east tower. Don't fall under the tower's spells," she replied, turning, her skirts swirling around her legs. "You've been warned. Stay away." Hermione stood, gaping at the ghost, stunned, as the Grey Lady nodded and floated into the wall.

Hermione wanted to run after the Grey Lady, but she had no idea where the ghost was going. But Severus goes up there every morning he's been in the castle for years. Why would he go up to a room in a tower to watch the sunrise every day if the tower is cursed? Wouldn't he know? She turned and quickly ran back to her dormitory to shower and change before breakfast, hoping that none of her four dorm mates were still in the room. He's the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. Severus knows more about the Dark Arts than anyone I know! Surely if the room was cursed, he'd know.

His last words echoed in her mind. 'Do not come back here, Hermione. Please, for both our sakes, do not return.' Oh, bloody Horntails! What if he knows and he's under the curse, too? She gasped at the thought. Is that why he keeps begging me to stay away from it because of the curse? But wouldn't Severus have broken it by now himself? What if he can't? What does that mean for us?

~Spring 1977~

The more he thought about it the more he was convinced that their own secret room was definitely cursed in some way. Not that it has been a bad thing. It's made her my girl again... Well, at least I think she's my girl now. Lily still didn't want things to be official between them. Mostly because of Avery, Wilkes, Mulciber and Rosier. She hates them and they're my friends. I'm certainly never going to be friends with Potter, Black and Lupin! And Pettigrew – what a waste of magic!

After their last visit, Severus had been bothered by Lily's inability to explain why she wanted to come up to the room with him. 'I don't know? I felt like it. I just wanted to... because I wanted to. I thought, well... I had this urge to come here,' she'd said. She was unable to explain it to me. Lily has never had a problem telling me what she wanted or how she felt. Nevertheless, she'd found it impossibly hard to explain. 'I just wanted to... I dunno. I suppose to be here with you,' she'd said, twirling her finger on my chest like she used to when she was little. She's never that indecisive – she's cheeky, assured and confident. It's just not like her.

Severus collected as many books on magical entrapment spells as he could. He was in a secluded corner of the common room, Dissuading and Repelling Charms set around his desk as he read any spell he could that matched in some part to the magic of their tower room.

He'd already considered Magical Beguiling Curses, Luring and Seducing Curses, and an Allurement Charm, but none of these matched how Lily acted exactly. There's an Ensnaring Curse, but that was used by hunters in the old days. Enticing and Captivating Curses, too, but they didn't last long on the subjects. He knew that he felt particularly rakish and randy when Lily was with him and somewhat unrestrained, but he could control those feelings with her to some degree. He felt bolder with her, more forceful in the tower room. He pushed her, even when she protested, which he normally wouldn't have done or maybe not as aggressively. I lose my self-restraint. However, when he was alone in the room, those feelings were not there. He felt peaceful and serene, at ease.

He concentrated on Lily's reactions. In the room she submits to me, and even when I push her, she protests a little, but her body reacts as if she doesn't mean it, and then she eventually surrenders to me – passionately. She's susceptible, surrendering, yielding... more responsive and encouraging... He found potions that would affect someone that way for extended lengths of time – but not spells. The closest he found included the: Allurement Curse, Beguiling Curse, Enticement Curse, and possibly the Ensnarement Curse... But each of these curses ends with the death of the one who cast the curse. When they pass on – the curse terminates.

"So, you're trying to trap a young lady, are you?"

Severus looked up and saw the Bloody Baron floating within his table, his ghostly finger tracing a page of one of his books. "Pardon me?" Severus asked, trying to shift his parchment under the book he was reading. "No, I'm just reading up on some charms and curses. It's just some research."

"No? Then, why would you wonder if it can be done unless you intend to try?" the Baron asked as he turned several pages of Severus' book. "Why would you be interested in such enchantments if not pursuing one of the fairer sex, eh?"

Severus closed two of his books and immediately regretted it when the gold gilt letter on Known Cursed Enchantments and Enticements of the Age caught the candlelight. "I'm not pursuing anyone – I'm reading," he stated coolly.

"Yes, the Perseverantis Decipere Obscurum Exercitum, which translated means, The Persistent and Beguiling Dark Arts..." the Baron read off another cover, opening the book to the Captive-Allurement Charm and the Attention-Captivating Charm, then turning the page to the Luring-Seduction Charm and Enduring-Seduction Charm. "I see, yes, no doubt delightful reading for you? Might also I suggest you read the Burgeoning-Lust or the Beguilement Charm? I believe you can find them in your copy of Love Spells Though the Dark Arts. Tis a most useful and beneficial tome, and I particularly favored the Relentless-Surrender, although those spells do fade in time..." he said, pointing to the book in Severus' stack.

Severus gazed up at the ghost, amazed that he knew so many of the Dark Arts Love and Lust Spells. "But can they be made to last?" he asked, trying to sound casual.

The Baron looked up and his opaque eyes became unfocused. "I once thought so, but her heart was not to be met by such assistances."

Severus twirled his quill lazily in his hand. "I've read so far that they are not binding, and the spells, when broken, have devastating consequences?" He glanced slyly at the Baron to gauge the ghost's reaction. "From what it says in these books, the spells are only temporary."

The Baron looked down at Severus and then turned another page in the Controlling, Manipulating and Beguiling Curses and Charms. "When one wishes to enchant or ensnare a fair lady..." He looked up as if staring through the stone wall of the common room. "Still, tis a practice that has been forbidden for a thousand years."

"Why is that? Wouldn't it be best to know these spells, to know their effects and how to reverse them?" Severus asked, trying to sound as if he were simply seeking an understanding of their principles in theory only. "I heard about them and wanted to know if it can be done," Severus replied, eyeing the Baron speculatively, "and if so, how to break them."

"The fairer sex has within them the strength to defeat your attempts. Their will can be greater than the stone... You would do better with poetry, I think."

"But if one was already entranced, ensnared by such curses – can they be broken?" Severus tried to keep his expression curious without looking too interested. "Drawn to relinquish themselves, surrender themselves, submit and yield, to lose her restraint..."

The Baron looked at him, his eyes narrowing suspiciously. "You speak of feeling like a randy rake? Your actions are roguish when you're around her? You're persistent and unrestrained, perhaps?"

Now we are getting somewhere. "Yet it is the lady that is beguiled," Severus tried coaxing the ghost, leading the conversation. "I'm merely drawn by her hand to a hidden tower for a tryst and..."

"No! You would bereft – it would be most unfortunate," the Baron blurted out, interrupting Severus, and then changed his demeanor. "One should not be so pursuant. Tis most unfruitious and unsatisfying... Your lady is deserving of a more gallant..."

"Hideaway, high above the castle; the perfect place to watch the sunrise with a woman you could truly love..." he finished the ghost's speech. As soon as the Bloody Baron had cut Severus off, he'd been watching the ghost closely. He knows...

The Bloody Baron's eyes became wide, his mouth pursed into a thin line. "You have been...! The forbidden tower of my youth...? You have... How? Tis sealed?"

"An allurement, enticement, a pull, a need, drawn to go, and she can't seem to help herself. She says she just feels like going up there – frequently. She wants to. She has this inexplicable urge to go up there – and I feel it, too."

The Baron looked at the books. "Yes. I know about this room you speak of. Tis cursed – do not go back. You must resist this room's magic – resist the magic's pull." He pulled the sheet out from Severus' book, sliding it somehow from under the table. His eyes widened at the list Severus had written.

Severus relaxed his face, making his as near expressionless as he could manage. "These are the spells on the room, aren't they?" The Baron nodded, looking at Severus, dropping the sheet into his hand as Severus calculated his next question. "What does the room do exactly? What is its intent?"

"To make the lady susceptible, surrendering, consenting. For he who would be pursuant of her hand, that he may know her love for him," he said, the his expression on his face, far away.

"But it doesn't work like that?"

"No, it does not. The stone has..." he replied, looking down at the books with an expression of remorse. "Thus the spells lie within the very stone. While you are on the stairs and within the room..." The Bloody Baron slipped from the table, floating backwards. "I warn you... Speak not of your affections to your lady love in this room. Leave it well alone, I pray you, while you can. Sorrow tis what you shall receive. You would do better unrequited and in sorrow."

Severus stood and followed the ghost as he floated to the wall. "Wait, you haven't told me..."

"Thus your secret room will entrap you and hold your soul until you are connected by your true match – until your wand mate comes," the Baron warned. "If she's not to be your lady fair, your true heart's intended, your heart shall be broken and you will waste away in mourning." The Bloody Baron stopped just against the stone wall and turned around slowly. "Pray you, while you can – leave this room unattended and seek it no more." And with that he slipped into the solid rock.

~Spring 1997~

Harry was still obsessing over Draco, and Hermione was sick and tired of hearing him bemoan about Draco's activities. Or lack there of. There is no evidence that Draco is up to anything suspicious. Besides, she now had other things on her mind, and they kept creeping up on her at the most inopportune times. More than once Hermione felt the urge to touch herself as Severus had done: in the bath, in the loo or in her bed at night. Still, she just couldn't seem to reach the same heightened feelings, the same exploding climax that he'd given her. It was frustrating. It was like he'd awoken something inside her, some part of her she never knew she had, and wanted again, desperately.

The other concern, one that was taking up way too much of her revision time was the warning the Grey Lady had given to Hermione that day. 'Each time you enter the room, the door requires more from you to open. How far are you willing to go with Professor Snape?' she'd said. The room is cursed. Still, she had gone back, she'd gone to the room, seeking the view from the window and deeply disappointed that Severus hadn't been there. Like an obsession. When Hermione closed her eyes, she now saw Severus in her dreams, in her thoughts. She'd made a sleeping draught simply to get enough sleep each night, which made her tired in the mornings.

That and no matter how often she tried, Hermione just couldn't seem to find the Grey Lady. Finally, out of desperation, she sought out Luna. Luna told her that the Grey Lady was spending most of her time in Ravenclaw tower, staring out the windows as if deeply saddened. She did promise that she would speak to the Grey Lady on my behalf and tell her I needed her counsel, but made me no promises.

It was after a very trying day with double Transfiguration and Potions and loads of essays to write that Hermione happened upon the Grey Lady in the library. "Please tell me how the room works. What is this curse, or curses," she pleaded as she approached the lovely ghost, "and how I can escape it? I've read everything I could find, and I cannot find any that match what I feel – what I think is happening to me."

She looked at Hermione as if considering her request, then crooked a finger to have Hermione follow her deep into the bookshelves, back in a corner near the Restricted Section. "I don't know what I can tell you. I can tell you that it's cursed so that if you are up there with someone you like, you will fall under the trap of the spells."

"But I don't like Severus that way," Hermione said, twisting her fingers together.

The Grey Lady smiled and looked at her contemplatively. "Severus? I think you do – you just used his given name."

Hermione's breath caught. Oops. "What are the spells on the room? Can you tell me?"

The Grey Lady shook her head. "No, I didn't do them. I'm not sure what spells he used on the room. I wasn't as affected by them myself. Not in the way he'd hoped at least."

"Okay then, can you tell me who did this? Why?" Hermione asked, trying not to sound too disappointed. "And why isn't the room locked? Sealed or protected?"

The Grey Lady regarded her with sad eyes. "There are protections on the room. I put them there. However, they can be breached. The Bloody Baron..." She turned and watched a boy walk past their aisle. "The tower was there when I was here as a student. I loved to go up there and watch the sunrise. He, the Baron, found out my love for the room. He'd loved me for a long time. The Baron was always a hot-tempered man, furious that I refuted him and refused to consent to be his bride. My mum always promised me the choice would be mine. He was jealous of my freedom, my desire to learn and my independent nature. It would be my guess, but I suppose there are charms that make you susceptible, surrendering, yielding, pliable to the man you are with – if you are intended for each other – if you like each other. You sense these, yes?"

Hermione nodded and waited for her to continue.

"If I was to guess which ones he'd use I'd suppose he'd use the Beguiling Curse, the Luring and Seducing Curses and the Allurement Charm. These types of spells would lure the unsuspected up the stairs, affect you the moment you ascend the stairs, drawing you to the room. If I remember correctly, the room itself has charms, enchantments on the door, possibly some type of Entrapment, Controlling, Enticement and Ensnarement Curses and Charms. However, they're twisted together, and unless you know which charm was added to which curse, you cannot break the magic of the room – except once you leave, never allow yourself to return," she said. "Only by your own will power and determination can you eventually break the draw of the room."

"You're kid-d... You're not, are you?" Hermione asked, stunned. "But why me and why Severus?"

The Grey Lady smiled sadly. "Did you pass through the wall of your own free will and climb the stairs?" Hermione nodded, and the Grey Lady shook her head. "Then you are under the spells. They did not work on me as he'd hoped. The question is, did they work on you?"

"Yes, I think so... But why? How come?" Hermione asked, now confused. Why did they work on me and not her? If she was the one intended...

"I never respected him, admired him or befriended him in any way," the Grey Lady said in a haughty tone. "I never looked up to him, never wanted him to like me or to get to know him. I didn't trust him, even when he showed me his kinder side. So I never returned to the tower room again because I didn't want to be confronted by him in there again."

Hermione covered her mouth. I've been all those things – felt them toward Severus – Professor Snape. "But what if you don't love the person?"

The Grey Lady shook her head. "In my day people did not marry because they loved each other. Marriages were arranged for social standing, political gain or money, and you didn't really have much say in the matter, especially in my social class. The best you could hope for was to be matched with someone you could like, respect and be friendly with and who treated you kindly. It was a long time ago. I don't expect you to understand. Things were quite different for women back then."

Actually, Hermione did understand. "But if that's the case, this room would have caused all kinds of problems with students – with different couples over the years."

The Grey Lady smiled. "No, as I said before, I put a protection on the stairs so that wouldn't happen."

"A protection?" Hermione asked, confused. I hadn't noticed any protection or obstruction to the room. All you had to do was feel for the obscured opening for the stairs and push your way through.

"You cannot get onto the stairs unless you are with someone with whom you are meant to be together or unless you are soul mates and are destined for each other," the Grey Lady replied. "I placed spells to make the entry resistant, set Dissuading and Repulsing Charms on the barrier so that you would be able to resist the allure, resist the draw of the tower stairs. Therefore, no one else need find and pass the portal. So far, in all my years here I have been able to keep almost all the students away from that room, all except for six other couples. Stay away, miss, unless you want to be forever locked with Professor Snape. Although, I fear that it may be already too late for you to do so."

~ T B C~>

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~o0o~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Author's Notes:

I had two people point out my mistake in using Early Modern English for the Bloody Baron, so I went and changed his speech patterns, although, I did leave a few 'slips' of the old English in. As Ellyn was so kind to point out, the Bloody Baron lived around 1100 AD/CE. Which means that when he was alive, he either spoke a dialect of French known as Anglo-Norman (given that he was a member of the nobility) or he spoke Old English, which is so different from Modern English that it seems like a foreign language to us. (Think of Beowulf in the original or selections from the Anglo-Saxon Reader). The Grey Lady, as a contemporary of the Baron, would likewise have spoken either Anglo-Norman or Old English. I wish to thank her, and apologize for my poor earlier attempt.